Thomas Kirkpatrick, a 19-year veteran of the Procter & Gamble Co., had an urge to try his hand at entrepreneurship. In 1998, he bought the assets to Eco Engineering LLC, a lighting energy services company.
Kirkpatrick saw big potential for the service his company provided, but it was lacking an organizational culture. The values that Procter & Gamble used touched home with him, and he figured those same values could work for his small business.
“Those ethics fit well with my own beliefs, so I tried to establish those same values here,” says Kirkpatrick, president and CEO. “I wanted to develop the organization to create a culture that would bring the good things I experienced at P&G and leave behind some of the things that could plague a larger organization and prevent it from being a nimble, customer-focused organization.”
By following core values and his company’s vision and mission, Kirkpatrick revitalized Eco Engineering, which saw 2009 revenue of $15 million.
Smart Business spoke to Kirkpatrick about how he runs his business by sticking close to the values he knows can create success.
Establish cultural values.
As the CEO of a small business you have the sole responsibility in being the leader to establish the vision, the values and the culture to set the tone for your organization. It surprises me every day how carefully people observe what you do, whether or not you’re setting high personal standards. It is absolutely essential and critical to communicate well and make certain that you are sharing your own personal character and standards.
As a CEO, you need to make sure that you communicate clearly the mission and vision of the company. [Employees] need to have something they believe in with passion and something they can get excited about.
You’ve got to decide what kind of an organizational culture you want to have, your values. You need to establish honesty, openness and integrity and create partnerships. Once you get a clear mission and core values set up, you will be able to get an organization in place that can go to work. You have to put together a set of measures so that you have something you can look at to see if you are achieving what you set out to do. You then have to evaluate what you have established, and from there, you set out to try and be the best.
